Awesome write up!

 

Do you know if anything special would be needed to connect to a vehicle that has the Fosgate system in it now? Thanks

 

I've been working on this:



Haven't had a ton of time lately because of the holidays, but it's progressing.

 

@Charlie. Yes I am currently working on a new evoscan version for incar android stereo like yours. but to be honest, I have had one of those android head units in my car already for two years working with EvoX and Evo8, and it sucks because you can not see it whilst driving. That was technology from 2 years ago. Don't get me wrong, its great for a stereo, and *maybe* as a gps (although Siri is much better at this). I still use it for playing mp3's off my micro sd card, its great. but not for telemetry., its just too far away for my eyes to cast all the time.

Hence why I decided to make 7inch EvoDroid7 to go on the A-pillar so you can actually see it whilst driving and racing. EvoDroid7 also supports usb host and usb device and wifi and bt. But yes I am currently working on a version of evoscan at the moment for android that works with more resolutions such as this one.

 

I'm currently working on mounting a tablet in my dash. I don't really know android programming so I'm having a tough time, but I'm trying to use an Arduino to bridge the car and head unit. I got most of the Arduino programming worked out, I just need to relay that info to the Android tablet and have it do the things I need it to do.

 

Yes I thought that would be awesome too. I have started putting my android in behind my cluster gauges behind the tacho.. so that I can glance at it all the time.. although I have put a 7inch android in portrait mode on the A-Pillar, works nicely for the time being.

 

Thank you sir!

Yes the RF system amp is turned on / setup via CAN BUS so you need a adapter that can send the right messages to the amp via CAN BUS.

I'm way to busy this time of year Looks great! I started to go this route but my design was getting really complex on paper so I ended up going with the pumpkin because it basically addressed every concern I had with a solution very similar to what I would do with a lot more time an resource. I’m a software engineer and I have done projects with Arduino and ELM32 adapters but this was getting a lot more involved and I hated the stock non navi touch screen so I did this.

How are you going to deal with the audio signals - Does your car have the RF amp? Mine did not but that would have helped because you can just connect it to an adapter via DAC line level out. I started to design a board on paper that has CANBus / OBD / Analog inputs (for steering wheel controls in our cars) / Simple stereo amp for cars without an external amp and a bluetooth chipset that works as A2DP host and Headset profile. If you want to chat about your project ping me. I would like do complete my design one day but I just don’t have time for that project right now.

 

Thanks for chiming in Hamish!

I have seen similar units years ago at a trade show in hong kong but they were very rough back then.. They have improved a lot. I find mine to be better than most basic android tablets only 2nd to a proper google nexus device..


Android 4.2-4.4
Full USB host with built in full size female adapter.
Built in WIFI
Hybrid bluetooth hardware / stack with A2DP and headset profile as host along with regular SPP for OBD bluetooth.

The screen is very bright and easy to use and see. I even use it for lap timer during track days and it basically works out perfect in my X. I had the JDM double din kit in my evo8 for about 9 years that was not nearly as usable due to glare and angle of the unit when making it flush etc..

Very willing to help when its beta time!

 

I was thinking what would be cool is use the android tablet in my dash as a power house, and then have a small LCD connected via an Arduino with readouts. The tablet can releay what to show on the LCD to the Arduino, which then tells the LCD to display it. This can sit off to the side and will be a lot smaller because it's only an LCD (not a tablet with battery, cpu, etc).

So you'd have the big brain in the dash, an android tablet, and the Arduino hiding behind it to provide functions that are closed off because of the dash (volume, power, previous/next track, play/pause), interfacing with steering wheel controls, and it could talk to other external displays. You could mount a small LCD anywhere, you could go full color or simple character display or a number read out. Sky is the limit, and the Android tablet could tell the Arduino what to display on said screen, anything front the currently playing track to details about the cars internals.

I actually have most of this worked out, I haven't messed around with trying to work with the steering wheel controls yet. The road block I hit is being able to talk to Android to/from the Arduino, since I'm not an Android programmer. Guess I need to learn XD

 

I have the RF amp, but it's terrible and I'm not keeping it. I'll be ditching the entire mitsu audio system. I'm probably going to use a focal amp and speakers, with a JL sub and sub amp. For audio processing I'm planning to get a decent USB DAC, and not use the tablets on board DAC. This will give significantly better audio quality, better than most higher end head units.

Currently I estimate this project (not counting amps/speakers) to cost around $300-350 total, however, I'm not done yet, so more stuff could pop up.

Tablet (Nexus 7) - $76 (used, ebay)
Dash Kit - $38
Arduino - $40
USB DAC - $50-75
USB Hub - $15
128GB USB Thumb Drive - $35
Misc Cables - $20

My biggest hurdle right now is the android programming, then it will be steering wheel controls, everything else is basically done.

 

I've had my Nexus 7 tablet installed in dash for over a year now Steering wheel controls is simple with a
RcJoyCon . Essentially plugs into your tablet and translates steering wheel button presses into keyboard presses. You can map the various keys (or even key combos!) to different functions in Android.

I haven't bothered to get the steering controls working though because I'm running USBROM (N7 rom designed specially for fixed installations) and it brings the volume control/play/next buttons into the navigation bar.

 

looks good

 

THANK YOU!

this should make it soo easy.

 

Thanks for your write up it was great help installed my stereo today and works perfectly.

 

Articles like this keep me coming back to the forums. Nice work and thanks for sharing.